This invention relates to the field of computer systems. More particularly, a system and methods are provided for enabling service representatives or agents (e.g., telephone agents) to self-schedule their work times.
Presently, work schedules of service representatives and other types of agents, independent contractors and employees are usually generated by their employer or the organization that contracted for their services. Although some individual service representatives' preferences may be accommodated (e.g., for vacation), generally the representatives are unable to pick and choose among various days and timeslots, during which work is available, in order to arrange their own work schedules. In other words, their schedules are generally set for them by someone else; they cannot self-schedule their work times.
This arrangement may succeed well in many situations, particularly in work environments in which representatives work extended periods of time per shift. For example, a call center that employs agents working regular work shifts (e.g., 5 days per week and 8 hours per day), a recurring schedule set by the call center may be acceptable to all parties.
However, if the workload for an organization's service representatives varies from hour to hour or day to day, such that the number of service representatives needed to handle the expected level of work fluctuates, this type of scheduling may be inefficient. For example, if a service representative encounters a more pressing need for his time (e.g., an emergency), he will have little choice other than simply not showing up for work. In particular, there is no mechanism in place for the representative to easily un-schedule himself from all or part of a work shift when that shift is part of a schedule set by the organization. Because representatives cannot schedule themselves for work, they cannot easily update their schedules in real-time or volunteer for last minute work opportunities.